The Dreadnaught FactorReview

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An ominous name for an ominous game.

By Levi Buchanan

During the Reagan Era, we all lived with the threat of impending doom from the Soviet Union. The fear of nuclear holocaust found its way into all of pop culture, from music to videogames. Activision's The Dreadnaught Factor, designed by Tom Loughry, was a manifestation of that distant drumbeat of doom. You piloted a series of nimble fighters against a seemingly incessant wave of massive warships that quite literally hung over the planet, inching downward in a creepily slow death march. If you could disable and repel one of these leviathans, called Dreadnaughts, another one simply took its place and the dirge started all over again.

At the start of the game, you see a map screen that shows the Dreadnaught entering orbit. You start your run, zooming across a star field to reach the warship. With each pass, the Dreadnaught drops a little closer to your planet. If the Dreadnaught reaches low orbit, you're helpless to watch the aliens lay waste to home.

Each Dreadnaught is armed to the teeth with cannons and missiles. As you get farther into the game, the Dreadnaughts unleash stronger flurries of fire. The first few ships offer only minimal resistance, but later levels show no mercy. You will be shot down -- multiple times. (Which explains why the game is pretty liberal with awarding extra lives.) The only way to take down the Dreadnaught's offensive weapons is with laser fire.

Your ship is equipped with bombs that are key to both slowing down and finally destroying the Dreadnaughts. Each Dreadnaught is powered by massive engines. Each one you take out decays the ship's velocity. The only way to ultimately destroy a Dreadnaught, though, is to bomb all of its vents. Hitting the vents usually requires you to slow down a bit, but in later stages against ultra-powerful ships, you better clear out the gun protecting the vents first. The Dreadnaughts change shape as you play, though, so you cannot always rely on the same runs and strategies which keeps the game fresh.

I originally played The Dreadnaught Factor on my Atari 5200, but there were two additional versions for the Intellivision and the Atari 8-bit computers. The only one of those editions I have played is the Intellivision version, which flips the script on its side. Instead of strafing the Dreadnaughts vertically, you attack from the side. It certainly steals away some of the game's eerie symbolism, but the Intellivision version did feature some pretty solid graphics for a machine entering its sunset period.

429 Mashing buttons will get you nowhere!

Error 429 Mashing buttons will get you nowhere!

Mashing buttons will get you nowhere!

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The Verdict

While I'm certainly happy that the fear of the era has diminished, The Dreadnaught Factor is still an effective game. If you have a 5200 (with working sticks -- ugh), it's well worth tracking down and adding to the collection. Try to get the box and manual, too, as Activision's art and text was practically unparalled. (Classic EA games for the Commodore 64 featured awesome boxes and manuals, too.) It's always cool to see a classic that you have such fond memories of hold its charms and I'd certainly nominate this one for remake status. With some visual upgrades, it would make a great XBLA download.